Description

A well defined buttress in the lower reaches of the upper La Cueva canyon. Located on the north side of the La Luz trail, just behind(east) of The Pulpit.

Getting There

Find the crest spur trail on the south side of the Sandia Crest parking lot, and follow it about 1/2 mile. Head down the La Luz trail, down several switch backs, and continuing down past a several talus slopes. After the talus slops, the trail crosses the La Cueva canyon, here you pass a La Luz trail sign made of iron. From this point continue on for 50 yards. Here a slab of rock extends down off a formation called the Frog. Scramble up this slab and stay against the base of the Frog heading north. After a couple hundred yards you reach the gully between the Frog and the Yataghan. This gully is guarded by a huge chockstone. Which requires a short rap during your descent off the Yataghan. Continue on past the gully to the base of the Yataghan.

Descent:

Once on the summit, head pretty much due north along the summit ridge. Just before the ridge blends into solid ground, a broad gendarme forces you either west or east. Go east, and scramble down a few rock steps to the top of a gully. Traverse across the top of this gully (do not enter the gully) even though it looks casual. Instead continue to the next gully, which is choked with many dead trees. This gully is super steep, and has much loose rock and debris. But the great majority of that rock and debris can be nicely avoided by going down the far side of the gully (east side).

Hike for a long time down along the base of the cliff. When you come to the beginning / top of a ridge line with your original descent gully on skier's right, it will be necessary to make a long detour skier's left, into the wooded area, to avoid a steep section. It also becomes clear at this point why you avoided the western-most gully. Re-enter the gully, but stay on the east side for several hundred feet, until the gully begins to curve slightly to the SW. At this point more rock-hopping is required, and you should be roughly below the start of the Southeast Face. Continue for another 100 yds to the rappel point, which is about 20 feet back from the lip of the giant chockstone. The rappel is about 40 feet long. An efficient party can make this descent in less than an hour.

If swinging leads, let your partner lead the first pitch, all the even numbered pitches are awesome! P1: (5.7) Scrambling and easy dihedral climbing to a bolted anchor. P2: (5.8+) Continue up, then a long traverse left. Climb the slightly runout face to an alcove belay. P3: (5.7) Traverse up and right past a small tree to a hanging belay adjacent to the pitch 4 traverse. Hard route finding here. A (5.9) variation to pitch 4 requires a slightly lower belay, the variation starts with a traverse le...[more]Browse More Classics in NM

The descent off the Yataghan is pretty serious. I would say its the most serious descent I've done in the Sandias.

Once on the summit, head pretty much due north along the summit ridge. Just before the ridge blends into solid ground, a broad gendarme forces you either west or east. Go east, and scramble down a few rock steps to the top of a gully. Traverse across the top of this gully (do not enter the gully) even though it looks casual. Instead continue to the next gully, which is choked with many dead trees, and descend carefully. This gully is super steep, and has much loose rock and debris. Hike for a long time down this gully. Near the intersection with the next gully west it will be necessary to make a long detour east, into the wooded area, to avoid a steep section. It also becomes clear at this point why you avoided the western-most gully. Re-enter the gully, but stay on the east side for several hundred feet, until the gully begins to curve slightly to the SW. At this point more rock-hopping is required, and you should be roughly below the start of the Southeast Face. Continue for another 100 yds to the rappel point, which is about 20 feet back from the lip of the giant chockstone. The rappel is about 40 feet long.

An alternative descent with no rappels: Go north along the ridge, then east and down the easternmost of the gullies, almost along the base of the next formation to the east (Chaos Crag), going around the back (east) side of the Frog (the Frog is the smaller formation just right of Yataghan, when you're looking at its SW face). This is Cl. 3 initially, then Cl. 2 most of the way (no rappels) and comes out where the La Luz Trail crosses the drainage. Someone helped this "trail" out by clipping the spike bushes sometime in recent years. I've gone this way twice and would opt for it over the rappel gully (updated 5/2015).

First couple of attempts by Dave Hammack and I wound up rappeling off the large ledge. Finally did the last lead off the ledge in 1962 and I remember it just being a walk off the top, but then it has been 39 years since I last did the climb. I also don't remember it being all that chossy except in spots